Stepney/Behind the Scenes
Background Information In the Railway Series Stepney is based on the real-life locomotive of the same name and his rescue to the Bluebell Railway mirrors from what happened in 1960. Stepney appeared in the Railway Series book, Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine, which was published in 1963. While he was not the first real-life locomotive to appear in the books, he was the first of two real engines to have a book of their own when they came to the Island of Sodor, the second being Wilbert. Front of Stepney: File:MainStepneyRWS1.png|1962 Stepney (faceless) as illustrated by Gunvor and Peter Edwards (1963) File:MainStepneyRWS2.png|1962 Stepney as illustrated by Gunvor and Peter Edwards (1963) File:StepneyAnnual2.jpg|1980 Stepney as illustrated by Edgar Hodges (1980) Rear of Stepney: File:StepneyillustratedbyGunvorandPeterEdwards.png|1962 Stepney as illustrated by Gunvor and Peter Edwards (1963) In the Television Series In 1995, Stepney was introduced in the fourth series of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. Stepney's introduction in the television series greatly contrasts to his introduction in the Railway Series and what happened in real life. Unlike the Bluebell Representatives, he was rescued from scrap by Rusty and taken to Sodor where he was rescued by what appeared to be the Bluebell Railway that is referred to as his Branch Line. Nonetheless, he still reprised his roles from the last three stories from the book ''Stepney the Bluebell Engine ''and has been recognised as a major character in the Thomas franchise. Stepney's home was still referred to as the Bluebell Railway regardless of the inaccuracy from what happened in real life. His last official speaking role in the television series to date was in the fifth series episode, Stepney Gets Lost. In the sixth series, he appeared primarily as a non-speaking character and his appearances in the seventh series was made primarily of stock-footage. Since the eighth series, he was widely absent along with many other characters since the stories primarily focused on the Steam Team (and to some extent, the narrow-gauge engines). Stepney did however have a minor role in the twelfth series episode, Rosie's Funfair Special, where he was hit by a runaway truck of sugar that broke away from Rosie's train. Stepney has not appeared in the series since 2008. Behind the Scenes Gauge 1 model Stepney’s model was custom built to run on gauge 1 track for the fourth series. The model was built from brass. It was painted using glossy car body paint and lined with red and gold automotive pinstripe tape. The chassis was constructed from scratch (CNC). It had a motor powered by electricity from the track via the pickups on the metal wheels. The eye mechanism had two servos, one for up and down movement and one for left and right movement. The up/down servo was attached to the body. The left/right servo had a rod attached to the arm, which connected to a bracket. The eye balls were coupled to the bracket and locked in by the face-plate, so whenever the servos were powered, the eye balls would move however the crew member desired. Ten different facial expressions were worn by Stepney on screen.SeansModels on Twitter The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made using a silicone mould. Two of Stepney's facemasks are now owned by Twitter user TomsProps. File:RustytotheRescue62.png File:StepneyModel2.jpg File:StepneyModel3.jpg File:StepneyModel1.png|Stepney's model (1995) File:StepneyTVModel.jpg|Stepney's model (2004) File:Stepney'sFacemasks.png|Stepney's complete face mask set during production of the sixth series. (2002) In the episodes, Rusty to the Rescue, Thomas and Stepney and Stepney Gets Lost, Stepney was seen with a lamp. This was powered by a hidden battery pack. File:RustytotheRescue41.png File:ThomasAndStepney42.png File:StepneyGetsLost24.png The twelfth series marked the beginning of the show's transition into CGI and the characters' faces were animated through CGI with the aid of motion capture animation. The physical models' molded faces were replaced by white targets with triangles to fix a computer-animated face in post-production. Stepney’s resin faces were only used in background shots. File:Rosie'sFunfairSpecial43.png File:Rosie'sFunfairSpecial47.png Stepney has had modifications throughout the model era. These include: * Series 6 ** His paint was given a matte finish ** His smokebox saddle was painted yellow. Stepney's model used to be on display at Drayton Manor, but went missing in December 2018. File:StepneyDraytonManor.jpg File:DraytonManorStepney.JPG File:StepneyDraytonManor2.png Close-up model Close-up shots of Stepney's cab was required for scenes in where he had to interact with close-up scale figures. It was also used for close-up whistle shots; smoke would emit from the whistle when required. The model was not complete and only portions of the cab were built. It appeared in the fourth, fifth and twelfth series. File:RustytotheRescue36.png File:RustytotheRescue44.png File:RustytotheRescue45.png File:TrainStopsPlay41.png File:TrainStopsPlay83.png File:StepneyGetsLost33.png File:StepneyGetsLost37.png File:Rosie'sFunfairSpecial45.png Voice Actors * Bin Shimada References Category:Behind the Scenes Category:Images of Stepney Category:Images from behind the scenes